Long Road Traveled: Cynthia Wise Galvan

By CHERYL TAYLOR/Special to the Star

Cynthia Wise Galvan has traveled a long and winding road to obtain the honor of putting Dr. in front of her name.
On Saturday, May 21, Galvan will receive her doctor of education in curriculum and instruction from The University of Texas at Brownsville. Though she has a new title, she intends to stay where she is to continue making a difference with students as the Mercedes Independent School District’s program director of Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE).
“Mercedes is quite an amazing district, and the ACE program is just one of the ways that we help our students in their development,” said Galvan. “These afterschool hours are used for doing so many of the activities that we don’t have time for during the school day — activities such as crafts, fine arts, field trips and intramural sports. These are positive and esteem-building activities that help develop the whole child.”
Galvan didn’t begin her educational journey in a typical fashion. Before finishing San Benito High School she married and she and her husband moved to Michigan where they began raising their two children. She obtained her GED while in Michigan, knowing she would need it to further her education because that was part of her long-term plan.
After moving to Houston, Galvan felt the time was right for her to begin juggling work, family and classes at the University of Houston. It was at the university that she met Dr. Sylvia Peña, who later would become dean of the UTB College of Education.
“We shared ideas and talked a lot about bilingual education and I realized how important it is for students in Texas, and especially students in the Rio Grande Valley,” said Galvan.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1988, Galvan and her family moved back to the Rio Grande Valley where she taught school for a couple of years.
Then Texas Gov. Ann Richards called Galvan to come to Austin, where, as executive director of the Governor’s Commission for Women, she worked on women’s health issues. That was followed by becoming the executive director of the Texas State Senate Hispanic Caucus.
“By then our kids were grown and were getting married, and my husband and I decided it was time to come home, back to the Valley, so we moved to La Feria about ll years ago,” said Galvan. “It was time, too, for me to return to education, and I was fortunate to find a bilingual teaching position with Mercedes.”
Galvan felt it was also time to again focus on her studies, so she returned to school at UTB and received her master’s in bilingual education in 2005. Two years later, in the fall of 2007, Galvan joined 11 other educators to make up the first doctoral cohort at UTB.
“I can’t believe it’s been almost four years — it seems like one long year,” said Galvan. “It has been rigorous, intense, inspirational, and demanding, as it should be — and quite rewarding. The remarkably talented faculty have been so supportive and so accommodating with all our busy schedules.”
Wearing their commencement regalia, those faculty members will be filled with pride as one of their own crosses the stage.
Even more joyful will be the group in the audience that stood beside Galvan throughout her journey, her family.
“This is one more chapter in my life that I can be really proud of.”
Cheryl Taylor is a writer in the Office of News and Information at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.For more information, log on to www.utb.edu.